This week let’s write an agent poem. Maybe you’ll write about an agent who represents someone or an agent of a government or maybe write about yourself as an agent of change since you are adding to the collective consciousness of the Internet by posting your poem in the comments below.
About Bartholomew Barker
Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in the Triangle region of North Carolina where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he lives and writes poetry.
Living Poetry 
The Agent
(Response to Bartholomew Barkers
Monday poetry prompt: AGENT)
by Ami (Gypsie) Offenbacher-Ferris
Agent’s due to come at dusk
A handsome gent
that smells of musk
The kind of gent
that makes a mama proud
A man to make a young girl
do twirls in the center
of her small living room
Over the moon
About a gent in blue
Brother stands and shakes his head
convinced his sister never will wed
Whether or not the gent is true
Whether he wears red, white or blue
This ones bit the one for you
Father enters his scowling face
not a hint of kindness
Not a trace
As he explains to one and to all
It’s not a gent that’s going to call
Family all turns as one to stare
at the man in his overalls
He stands to a height of six foot four
sauntering slowly
towards the door
My sweet little girl I’m sorry to say
it’s not a-gent calling for you today
It’s me that’s been caught
well and good
An agent he is for his livelihood
An agent in blue to take me away
Up the creek and far away
My moonshine still did he find
a-gents not yours I’m afraid he’s mine
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Posted by Ami (Gypsie) Offenbacher-Ferris | November 8, 2021, 8:36 AMNice story poem. Love the play with “a gent” and “agent”.
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | November 8, 2021, 7:30 PMI really like this and yes, the “a-gent” play is terrific.
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Posted by JeanMarie | November 9, 2021, 4:52 PMThat is terrific. Love it.
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Posted by Second Act Blogger | November 12, 2021, 9:59 AMSecond Act Blogger – Thank you. So glad you enjoyed it! 😊
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Posted by Ami (Gypsie) Offenbacher-Ferris | November 12, 2021, 9:59 AMGreat play on words, and a gent for a dancing lady that who is young, poetic, and comes with moonshine! Nice rhyming too.
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Posted by ts19page | November 8, 2021, 9:02 AMts19page – Thank you! 😁
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Posted by Ami (Gypsie) Offenbacher-Ferris | November 8, 2021, 9:25 AMHousewife Burn
We paid the parking
paid the orthodontist,
mugged the thug and the
taxman crept away.
Man and woman, we lived
on the borders
of the gilded age,
just west of Eden.
There, where serpents twine
and drop hints,
housewives grow rampant,
thinking of things to do with cellophane,
And write the book on Wifery,
house and mid,
kitchen chatelaine specializing
in rumpled sheets upon the bed.
So rise and poetize as living art
you, who mastering agency,
juggle six lives at once,
while burning through the dark.
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Posted by ts19page | November 8, 2021, 9:16 AMLove the “we lived on the boarders of the gilded age” Great stuff!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | November 8, 2021, 7:31 PMWhen a spy loses his sneak
and his shoes begin to squeak
maybe he should retire.
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Posted by JeanMarie | November 9, 2021, 4:52 PMHa! Good one!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | November 9, 2021, 7:07 PMOr maybe he could just re-shoe.
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Posted by ts19page | November 12, 2021, 4:47 PMLikeLiked by 2 people
Posted by Bartholomew Barker | November 9, 2021, 8:29 PMThis poem reminds how it can be pleasant to think of a storm, a violence of nature, being an agent of change. After a storm there may be a sense of newness, a fresh start. It also reminds that there are different kinds of change, as in seasonal change which is recurring, irrefutable, and relentless. It seems we must all be agents of change in some way, in some way we must flow with change and benefit.
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Posted by ts19page | November 12, 2021, 4:54 PMSo people resist change, even fear it. It’s cliche but life is change. If it wasn’t, poetry would be really boring.
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | November 12, 2021, 5:29 PMHere is a short haiku, inspired by my teammates
We are all agents
in my job, finding hidden secrets and
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Posted by Second Act Blogger | November 12, 2021, 9:54 AMThis is inspired by my team at work
We are all agents
in my line of work
finding embarrassing secrets
perturbing complacent illusions
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Posted by Second Act Blogger | November 12, 2021, 9:58 AMLove that last line. Great work!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | November 12, 2021, 1:40 PMwe are all agents
by virtue of life
and awareness
a field of energy
for good or not
in everything we do
even if it’s not our intent
no one is not a physical koan
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Posted by Chris Clarke | November 12, 2021, 3:48 PMVery nice. Love the “koany” feel of the last line.
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | November 12, 2021, 4:08 PM